Traditional telly hangs on

TV MARKETING BODY Thinkbox says that commercial broadcast TV had a "record breaking" first half of 2008.

The report compiled by the company from ratings body Barb, shows that catch-up services such as 4 On demand and BBC Iplayer are not showing the popularity expected.

Thinkbox remains optimistic though as they say, "that both broadcast and online TV platforms are growing simultaneously underlines how they fulfil different needs for viewers and that they can co-exist and indeed promote each other."

In the first half of 2008 UK viewers watched 3.77 hours of broadcast TV a day – that's a two per cent increase on the five year average.

So, while Thinkbox says both services are level pegging, Vincent Letang, an analyst at Screen Digest says that, "these [online] services are not cannibalising traditional TV viewing," as they were expected to.

"First of all, in terms of the amount of money spent by advertisers, it is so small that it doesn't divert from broadcast TV money. The other reason is that in terms of the time spent using online TV services, it is actually very small, " he added.

Tess Alps, chief executive of Thinkbox thinks, "this is a shaft of very bright light that cuts through any economic gloom… advertisers should be taking advantage of a medium that offers proven effectiveness, increasing value and is growing."

Analysts argue further that the broadband TV market is actually too small at the moment to tell what the true impact of its services will be.

Although this is all good news for traditional TV, UK TV advertising is expected to drop in the second half of 2008 – so it actually seems a rather uncertain future on both fronts. µ